「Gurururururururu~!」

Set’s cry echoed through the forest.

It was a fair distance from the Imperial Capital, so there was no need to worry about his cry being heard. That said, it was a different matter for adventurers inside the forest.

Set himself didn’t seem to care, but there were quite a number of adventurers who heard his cry.

The forest wasn’t far from the Imperial Capital, about half a day’s walk, and being so close by, there weren’t many strong monsters around.

Instead, there were a fair number of medicinal herbs that grew in the forest, so it was common for new adventurers from the Imperial Capital to make money by gathering herbs and killing wild animals, rather than monsters, to sell their meat and fur.

Fortunately for Set, those that heard his cries thought it was only the howling of some wild animals and not a monster.

It had been a few hours since Set had parted ways with Rei and he was so focused on hunting animals in the forest to satisfy his hunger that he hadn’t paid any attention to them at all.

「Gurururu~!」

Set gave a satisfied cry as he stood in front of the corpse of a bear whose head had been torn apart from a single strike of his claws, using Power Crush.

「……Guru~?」

However, tilting his head……he realised that he couldn’t skin the fur himself and looked down in disappointment.

When hunting with Rei, Rei would skin the prey after killing it.

Rei would also strip the fur away from the meat so that Set wouldn’t need to worry about it when eating.

Compared to ordinary animals, eating meat without fur was a luxury.

However, Set was now used to that luxury, so he really wanted someone to skin the fur for him.

「……Guru? Gurururu~」

But, even though he was in a forest close to the Imperial Capital, he was still pretty deep inside the forest.

Naturally, as a place where many new adventurers gathered, not many people would go that deep inside.

「Gururururu~……」

Realising that as well, Set gave a disappointed cry as he turned to look back at the corpse of the bear.

However, even if adventurers had come by, it probably wouldn’t have gone as Set had hoped. If new adventurers saw a Griffon up close, they would obviously panic.

In the worst case, it wouldn’t be strange for them to attack Set out of panic.

「Gurururu~!」

In the end, he used his front claws to strip the fur off the bear as he pecked at the meat.

Even if the bear was a powerful animal, it was nothing more than a snack to an A rank Griffon.

If it were a monster of a certain rank, the monster’s magic power would increase the flavour of the meat, but……

「Gururu~」

Set gave a disappointed cry at the meat from the bear’s right arm.

The monsters inside the forest were only low ranking monsters, so in terms of taste, the bear meat Set was eating was already far superior.

Even as he ate the bear meat, he felt a little dissatisfied at the lack of salt and pepper, a habit from living and eating with Rei.

「Guru~?」

Still, Set ate the bear meat as it was better than nothing. As he was eating, he suddenly looked around as he noticed something.

He could hear human voices from quite a distance.

Set looked towards the bear meat in disappointment, but he also understood that it would cause trouble if he were found. He listened closely to the voices he could hear.

「Hey are you sure we should go there? I’ve never heard a beast make that sound before.」

「It’s fine. This forest is a place where beginners like us would come, you know? Any beast that lives here won’t be a big deal.」

「What if it’s a monster?」

「That’s impossible. We’re so close to the Imperial Capital, right? If there was a C rank monster, the Imperial Capital would have sent knights and soldiers here by now.」

「What if it’s a monster that has just come to the forest?」

「Seriously, you’re such a worrier, Nina. That can’t be possible, right?」

It could be possible.

If Set could speak, he would probably have said that.

If it were a monster that were approaching, it wouldn’t have been difficult for Set to deal with it.

But, humans……and ones who were not hostile to him, weren’t people he wanted to attack.

It was unclear how long he would be away from Rei, but since it could be a while, he didn’t want to cause a commotion if possible.

「Guru~……Gurururururu~……」

The bear’s corpse had been roughly stripped of its fur with his beak and claws.

He hadn’t eaten much of the meat though, so it would be a waste to leave it like this.

But……

「Gururururu~」

With a short cry, he left the place.

He could have taken the bear’s corpse with him, but doing so would have drawn attention.

Fortunately, he wasn’t so hungry as to be unable to leave it behind and it wouldn’t be hard for him to find more prey again as well.

Even though he understood that, the fact that he glanced back at the bear’s corpse for a moment showed his greed.

「Guru~」

He left the area with a disappointed cry.

「Woah! What’s with this bear corpse! Why is it like this here!」

「See, I told you so! There might be something nearby who can kill this bear! We’d better get out of the forest now!」

「H-Hey, don’t pull me. I get it, I get it! Just wait a minute!」

「Why! It’s dangerous, so hurry up……」

「Look. It’s just a corpse. Whoever did this is gone now.」

「But, what if it comes back……」

「Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’ll protect you if it comes down to it. And, while we’re at it, let’s find somewhere to sell this bear corpse.」

「……Seriously?」

Hearing the voices behind him, Set went deeper into the forest in search of his next prey.

He moved by running along the ground instead of flying as people would realise there was a Griffon around if he flew.

Though he wanted to meet with Rei, it would be a while before Set could fulfill his wish.

 

 

「Fu~!」

With a sharp breath, Rei swung the Death Scythe, slicing through the crisp, early morning, autumn air.

Anyone watching Rei’s movements would think of death as they saw the speed of the blade while also being mesmerised by his continuous, dance like motions.

It was the second day since Rei had arrived at the Imperial Capital. There was nothing to do and he couldn’t play around with Set either, like he normally would in his free time.

That was why he had gone to sleep early last night and woken up early this morning.

Breakfast had yet to arrive either, so he trained with the Death Scythe as morning exercise instead

He knew that there were people, including the gardeners, who were watching him, but Rei trained freely without worrying about their gazes.

If they just wanted to see his strength, they could just look. It wasn’t something so simple that they could figure out just by looking.

「Haah-!」

The Death Scythe’s shaft swung with great force as it sped across the ground before coming to a dead stop.

The next moment, the butt pierced into the ground and, using the recoil, the tip of the Death Scythe’s huge blade tore through the air……towards where a person’s neck would have been.

The meter long blade pierced the imaginary figure’s neck. In ordinary situations……no, even in extraordinary situations, it would have been a fatal blow.

If the Death Scythe was empowered with magic power, the lethality would be even greater.

「-!」

With the tip of the blade stuck inside his opponent, the Death Scythe swung out horizontally in one strike.

If the blade was still inside the enemy, it would have definitely sent their head flying. Even their body would have been torn apart in a single strike.

Rei repeated his actions countless times in various patterns.

It wasn’t a dance, but a demonstration of martial arts. A dance that led to martial arts.

Anyone seeing Rei’s movements would naturally have that thought in their minds.

In fact, most of the gardeners who were watching and guarding Rei were distracted by his movements.

As soon as Rei stopped……the sound of applause echoed through the garden.

「That was really amazing. I thought your movements were amazing when we fought before, but you were even more amazing today. Does that mean you weren’t serious then, Rei-dono?」

Widele stopped clapping as she reached for the basket she had placed on the ground because it had gotten in the way of her clapping.

「It’s nothing that impressive, just morning exercise.」

「……If you call that morning exercise, other people will have thoughts……」

The flowing attacks from before. Widele was pretty confident in her skills, but if asked if she could copy it, she could only say no.

Well, it wasn’t impossible, to copy the exact same movements if she were asked to, but it would just be copying.

Free movements without a fixed pattern. That was the basis of Rei’s movements.

Since he could swing around the 2m long Death Scythe, he could naturally do so in different ways.

「So, what did you want? I was a bit bored, so I’d appreciate it if you have time just to talk.」

Despite all the movement, Rei didn’t even break a sweat as the stored the Death Scythe back into the Misty Ring and asked Widele.

However, Widele shook her head as she handed over the basket in her hand to Rei.

「No, I just came to deliver breakfast. I thought you might still be asleep, but you’re up quite early.」

「It is here after all and there’s nothing to do. I got to sleep well last night.」

「A place like this……well, this is Princess’ Frizione’s hideout.」

Widele sighed at Rei’s words.

「I can’t go out into the city, much less walk around the castle, can I? Others might want to drink alcohol, but I don’t understand what’s so good about it.」

Rei smiled as he took the basket and saw several small portions of food inside, including freshly baked black bread and seasoned chicken.

「You don’t like alcohol? That’s unusual. It’s not uncommon for people to drink diluted wine from childhood, was it different for you?」

「……Yeah. I was raised deep in the mountains by my magic teacher from a young age, so I don’t know much about things like that.」

Rei blurted out those words, suddenly recalling the background he had created for himself for the first time in a long while.

Fortunately, Widele didn’t seem to notice and just nodded in response.

Rei reached for the black bread in the basket, believing he had manged to muddle his way through what he had said earlier.

The solid weight of the bread was something unique to black bread, or at least it felt that way in his mind.

「If you’re going to eat, your sweat……」

Widele spoke as she saw Rei pick up the bread, but stopped talking after realising there wasn’t a single drop of sweat on Rei’s face.

Since Rei had been moving vigorously since she arrived, he naturally had to have been doing the same before she arrived.

And yet, he didn’t look tired at all. Widele once again realised that Rei was very extraordinary in many ways.

(Though……it’s obvious that he isn’t ordinary since he has Set, a Griffon, as his familiar.)

Widele convinced herself inside her mind.

「Hm? What’s wrong?」

As Rei sat on the ground and tore apart the bread to eat, he tilted his head at Widele’s condition.

「No, it’s nothing. Anyway, is there anything like to eat for lunch? Locking you here……might not be the best way to put it, but you are stuck here for now. Princess Frizione told me to accommodate your requests as much as possible.」

「……I see. Then next time, I would like more food.」

「More food?」

The basket Widele had brought was quite large, enough food for three normal people.

She knew Rei ate a lot when he came to the Imperial Capital, but now it seemed that he ate even more than she thought.

「Eating is the only thing I can enjoy here. Luckily, I won’t get fat even if I eat that much.」

「……Don’t say that in front of Commander Angela.」

Rei nodded in response after being warned with a serious expression.

[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]